


Murphy’s Law

by nanabongie



Series: Can Go Wrong, Did Go Wrong [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Gen, Good Older Sibling Cassandra Cain, Good Older Sibling Jason Todd, Hurt/Comfort, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Jason Todd is Batman, Mostly hurt, They all need a hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:50:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26960167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nanabongie/pseuds/nanabongie
Summary: Anything that can happen, will happen.—In a world where everything that could go wrong, did go wrong, Jason ends up becoming Batman. The problem is, he never wanted to be.
Relationships: Cassandra Cain & Jason Todd, Jason Todd & Damian Wayne
Series: Can Go Wrong, Did Go Wrong [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1967410
Comments: 3
Kudos: 184





	Murphy’s Law

**Author's Note:**

> Mix and matching canons is my middle name. Honestly I drew inspiration from the DCAU, the DCEU, the comics, probably fucking LEGO: Batman, I don’t even know lol. This world doesn’t follow any continuity to be honest and I’ve been thinking of doing a few prequels and sequels to this instalment, tell me how you like it and leave kudos!

A week had passed since the funeral. The manor was silent. Damian had retreated into his room. Jason had resorted to leaving plates of food outside the boy’s door, but they were rarely touched.

Tim had disappeared after the funeral, Jason supposed that they were lucky that he came, he didn’t doubt that the boy —  _ man now,  _ his grief riddled brain supplied — had retreated to Amusement Mile to wallow in his own personal hell.

Duke and Steph we’re trying their best to help Jason with the manor upkeep. They hadn’t dared to hire a new butler after Alfred had passed away last year but cleaning the grandiose manor while balancing vigilante and civilian life duties proved to be difficult, and the amount of hands to help had dwindled down tremendously.

Barbara had been helping as best as she could, but Jason knew that the GCPD had been swamped with cases recently. Jason wasn’t proud to admit that they had been neglecting fighting crime in the past few weeks. Barbara and the other clean detectives on the force had to pick up their slack.

And Cass was... well Jason didn’t even know where to start with Cass. She often spent time in the cave and was the only one of them that patrolled regularly. 

He missed Dick, he missed Dick so goddamn much and he wasn’t sure if the grief would ever go away. With Bruce it had been hard, but Dick fucking Grayson had been the glue to hold them all together after Bruce had died and Tim had went off his rocker and reverted back to Joker Junior.

For the first time in the ten years he had been back, Jason didn’t know what to do. Ever since his mind had somewhat returned to him after he had taken a dip in those poisonous green waters he had had always planned ahead, every step he took was methodically plot out. Dying had made him more paranoid than Bruce was, who would’ve thought?

He wasn’t as anal as Tim had been, probably still was, but he had to have at least 99% of the picture before making a plan and had to have a contingency for that 1% that was left.

Jason prized himself on being prepared for almost anything. But this? He had no clue what to do.

Dick had been Batman, Dick had been his older Brother, and now Dick was gone. His grave lined up perfectly next to Bruce’s.

“We need to talk,” Cassandra said, finding Jason curled up in a chair in the manor’s library that he had claimed as his back when he was twelve and naive to all the pain he would go through in the coming fourteen years.

Jason said nothing, but he moved to make space for Cassandra in the armchair.

She sat down next to him and peered at the book he was reading.

“Don Quixote. Good book,” she said with a pleased hum.

“It’s pronounced Quijote, and yes it’s really good,” Jason corrected softly, a word that was not commonly associated with the Red Hood, but one that was becoming more and more common with Jason Todd.

Cass took a minute to wrap her tongue around the phonetics and let out a pleased smile when Jason told her that she got it.

“Damian said,” she started after a few moments of silence, “That he didn’t want to be Batman.”

Jason cursed himself for allowing himself to forget about the issue of the cowl and who it would be passed onto. Because as much as he loathed to admit it, Gotham needed Batman, it had depended on him for too long and the power vacuum his absence would leave would be worse than the one Joker’s death left. 

“M not surprised, kid said somethin’ similar a few years back, and he isn’t as obsessed with it being his ‘blood right’ like the way he used to be,” Jason said, he dreaded where this conversation was headed. He knew that right now the only two people that were actually up for consideration for taking the cowl was him and Cass. Only one of them actually wanted it though.

“No more Robin either,” Cass said solemnly. Now this shocked Jason. Damian loved being Robin. Ever since Tim had passed down Robin to him it was all he had lived for, it was as much magic to Damian as it had been to Jason when he was a kid. But he guessed that magic went away after you mentor dies a brutal death at the hands of their Great Grandfather.

Jason was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that Dick was dead, let alone that he was a descendant of the Talon that was mentioned in the horrible nursery rhyme parents in Gotham would tell their children so that they wouldn’t misbehave.

“He doesn’t want to be Robin anymore? Should’ve seen that coming but it’s still shocking,” Jason said with a sigh, leaning so that he could press his cheek onto Cass’ hair.

“I want Batman,” Cass often sounded serious when she was speaking, the window to what she was actually feeling was her body language, but Jason had never heard Cass sound more resolute than she did now.

“Well I guess that settles it then,” Jason said tiredly, he was always tired these days.

“I want Batman,” she repeated, “But I am not the Batman Gotham wants or needs.”

This caused Jason to sit up, “What the hell are you talking bout Cass?”

“Gotham needs you little brother, this family... we need you,” she said sadly, reaching up to gently run her hand through Jason’s hair. 

“I can’t be Batman, I’m batshit remember?And I’m quite fond of guns. What if I decide to throw out the rubber bullets and unload a clip in Poison Ivy’s head? Then what?” He said defensively, but he knew his argument was weak. Jason hadn’t killed anyone in Gotham in six years.

“You won’t,” Cass said firmly.

“You don’t know that,” Jason said, but a small part of him knew what Cass was saying was true. Jason was more Gotham than any of them, more than even Bruce was. He was a son of Gotham, she had nurtured him and poisoned him simultaneously throughout his entire youth, had dealt him a bad hand and the blessed him in a turn of fate that had given him whiplash. Logically he knew that being Batman long term would fall on him, he didn’t want to be Batman though. But when did Jason ever get what he wanted?

“Yes I do, big sisters know everything,” Cass said with a small smile.

Jason rolled his eyes, “We never actually got to proving who was older.”

“I know I am, now sleep little brother,” Cass said, pulling him down so that he could rest his head on her shoulders. They probably looked comical, Jason in all his 6’1 glory curled up against Cassandra and her small stature, but they fit together, and Jason let sleep overtake him. And for the first time in weeks he didn’t dream of owls.

—

The batsuit felt wrong on Jason. It’s not that it didn’t fit right, he had asked Luke to help him make a batsuit for Jason’s stature a day after his conversation with Cass. No the suit fitted fine, and to say other otherwise would be blaspheming on the good Fox name. It was Jason that didn’t fit.

He felt like an impostor, wearing armour that had been moulded by Bruce and later down the line Dick, he didn’t even believe in everything Batman was supposed to stand for, why the hell did Cass think that he would make a good Batman.

The batsuit itself is less formfitting than Dick’s, it was reminiscent of Bruce’s older suits. Jason had decided to forego guns when he was in the cowl, because no matter what he personally though he would never shoot a gun while adorning his father’s cowl. At least not anymore, after everything they had gone through, he couldn’t.

“It suits you Todd,” Damian said. It was the first words that he had spoken to him since the funeral two weeks ago.

“I don’t know about that brat, I feel like...” he trailed off, staring at his reflection through the glass that held his tattered Robin suit. He could remove it if he wanted to, Dick had asked him if he wanted it gone. Jason could never bring himself to say yes though. It confused him, because he hated the case with his entire being, it made him see green, so he didn’t know why he would sometimes find himself staring at it for minutes on end.

“A pretender? Unfit to take up the mantle?” Damian finished for him. 

“Bingo,” Jason said with a laugh, but it was to short, too harsh, to be genuine.

Jason turned to look at his younger brother, “Cass told me that-“ he paused as he took in what Damian was wearing.

The familiar black and blue glared black at him tauntingly. Damian looked just as uncomfortable as Jason felt. There were changes to the Nightwing ensemble, more armoured than Dick’s was and with more secret compartments, not to mention Damian’s signature cape and cloak.

Jason couldn’t help but think that Bruce would’ve been happy if he had seen the changes Damian had made, Dick and Bruce would have somewhat playful — as playful as Batman could get — arguments about how little protection the Nightwing suit offered.

“It’s awful is it not? I did not have much time and I was going to wear that awful excuse of a suit that Richard was so fond of,” Damian said with feigned disdain, but Jason had gotten good at reading him over the years, and he knew how Damian felt at the moment.

“Kid anything looks better compared to Dickiebird’s fashion disasters? Have you ever seen the Discowing? The asshole claimed that it was ‘state of the art’ and offered ‘full protection’ when he was going around flashing his pecs at every criminal in Blud,” Jason said with laugh, smiling at the memory of Dick’s awful first Nightwing suit.

“Richard shouldn’t have been trusted to buy his own pair of shoes let alone choose what he would traipsed around in for his nightly activities,” Damian said with a smirk. It’s less insufferable than it usually is.

“Demon, he would be so damn proud of you, both of them, you know that right?” Jason said, all traces of his smile gone. Damian met his eyes and frowned. It never failed to astonish Jason how much Damian looked like Bruce and Talia, his features except for his eyes were an exact replica of his father’s, but the way he smiled and his gaze reminded Jason of Talia so much that it hurt.

”I’m not vapid Todd, I am the blood son after all and I was Richard’s Robin up until the bitter end, I have not slew a single person since I became Robin,” Damian had tried to take a teasing tone at the start but his words had ended up tinged with sadness. 

Jason cursed Gotham for being so unfair as to take away the kid’s father and eldest brother before he was even legally able to drink.

“Come here brat,” Jason said as he pulled Damian into his arms. The fact that the younger didn’t even let out a yelp of indignation was testimony to how he was feeling. Damian had grown a lot in the past years, but Jason still had a good inch or two on him and was decently broader. A small part of Jason hoped that the brat was done growing.

The hug was awkward between all the Kevlar, and Jason and Damian weren’t much for hugs anyways, but despite that Damian relaxed into Jason’s arms. And if Jason heard a faint sniffle coming from him, well he didn’t say a word.

It didn’t last long, but that was okay for the both of them.

“Batman, would I be permitted to drive the batmobile?” Damian asked once they had pulled away from each other, the insufferable smirk that Jason had been missing finding its way back to Damian’s face.

“Hell fucking no Nightwing, but if you’re good I’ll let you ride in the back in a booster seat.”

“I’ll castrate you Todd.”

“No names on the field Dami.”

“We’re in the cave you absolute imbecile.”

“Do you want to ride in the batmobile or not?”

“...”

“Fine.”

**Author's Note:**

> To clarify a few things, following the DCAU Barbara never gets shot by the Joker so she goes on to become Commissioner Gordon II
> 
> I might add more to this universe depending on the response but I’m very interested in writing Tim as Joker Junior.


End file.
